What is a chemical Reaction?

Examples of chemical reactions are Burning gasoline in an engine Rusting iron Baking soda and vinegar Baking cookies and even What your digestive system does to the cookies

But the question is, What is a chemical reaction?

In a chemical reaction the molecules in the reactants interact to form new substances A chemical reaction causes a chemical change in which a new substance is formed.

How is this different than a physical change?

Processes like dissolving or a change in state from a solid to a liquid, or a liquid to a gas cause a physical change in which no new substance is formed.

Chemical or Physical?

Burning candles
When a candle burns, molecules in the wax react with the oxygen in the air. This reaction, called combustion, releases energy in the form of the heat and light of the flame. The reaction also produces something else which is not as obviouscarbon dioxide and water vapor

The candle wax is made of long molecules called paraffin which are made of carbon (C) and hydrogen (H) atoms bonded together.

Molecules made of only carbon and hydrogen are called hydrocarbons. The simplest hydrocarbon (methane) can be used as a model to show how the wax or any other hydrocarbon burns.

The chemical formula for methane is CH4. This is the chemical equation for the reaction of methane and oxygen.

+
CH4 + methane 2 O2 oxygen

=
=

+
CO2 carbon dioxide + 2 H2O water

The reactants
The methane (CH4) and oxygen (O2) on the left side of the equation are called the reactants. Each molecule of oxygen gas is made up of two oxygen atoms bonded together.

The products
The carbon dioxide and water on the right side of the equation are called the products.

The other product is two molecules of water.

Where do the products come from?

The atoms in the products come from the atoms in the reactants. In a chemical reaction, the reactants interact with each other, bonds between atoms in the reactants are broken, and the atoms rearrange and form new bonds to make the products.

Counting the atoms in the reactants and products

To understand a chemical reaction, you need to check that that the equation for the reaction is balanced. This means that the same type and number of atoms are in the reactants as are in the products. To do this, you need to be able to count the atoms on both sides.

CH4

2 O2

CO2

2 H2O

+
methane oxygen

=
carbon dioxide

+
water

+
CH4 + 2 O2

=
= CO2

+
+ 2 H2O

Did you notice big number (coefficient) in front of some of the molecules and a little number (subscript) after an atom in some of the molecules? The coefficient tells how many of a particular type of molecule there are. The subscript tells how many of a certain type of atom are in a molecule. So if there is a coefficient in front of the molecule and a subscript after an atom, you need to multiply the coefficient times the subscript to get the number of atoms.

If you look closely at the equation, you can see that there is: 1 carbon atom in the reactants and 1 carbon atom in the products. There are: 4 hydrogen atoms in the reactants and 4 hydrogen atoms in the products. There are: 4 oxygen atoms in the reactants and 4 oxygen atoms in the products. This equation is balanced.

Another way of saying that an equation is balanced is that mass is conserved. This means that the atoms in the reactants end up in the products and that no new atoms are created and no atoms are destroyed.

Changing the amount of products

If you want to change the amount of products formed in a chemical reaction, you need to change the amount of reactants. This makes sense because atoms from the reactants need to interact to form the products.

An example is the popular reaction between vinegar and baking soda.

+
C2H4O2 NaHCO3

=
NaC2H3O2

+
H2O

+
CO2

When you do this reaction, one of the most noticeable products, which you see on the right side of the equation, is carbon dioxide gas. If you wanted to produce more CO2, you could use more baking soda because there would be more baking soda to react with the vinegar to produce more carbon dioxide.

If you wanted to make a lot of carbon dioxide, could you just keep adding more and more baking soda to the same amount of vinegar? Discuss this with a partner. Be ready to explain your answer. This might work for a while, as long as there was enough vinegar, but eventually there would be no atoms left of vinegar to react with the extra baking soda so no more carbon dioxide would be produced.

Evidence of a chemical reaction

There are ways to determine if you have produced a chemical reaction.

Produce a gas Formation of a precipitate Color change Temperature change

Production of gas
The gas produced from mixing vinegar with baking soda is evidence that a chemical reaction has taken place. Since the gas was produced from mixing a solid (baking soda) and a liquid (vinegar), the gas is a new substance formed by the reaction.

Formation of a precipitate
Another clue that a chemical reaction has taken place is a solid is formed when two solutions are mixed. When this happens, the solid is called a precipitate. The precipitate does not dissolve in the solutions.

Color change
When two substances are mixed and a color change results, this color change can also be evidence that a chemical reaction has taken place. The atoms that make up a molecule and the structure of the molecules determines how light interacts with them to give them their color. A color change can mean that new molecules have been formed in a chemical reaction with different structures that produce different colors.

Temperature change
Another clue that a chemical reaction has occurred is a change in temperature of the reaction mixture.